Fiji National Blood Services collected 83 pints of blood during the Bank of Baroda Foundation Day celebration on Thursday at Labasa.

FNBS manager North Alena Koroi confirmed that her team also screened 165 people for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD).

The bank honoured two of its longest serving customers on the same day.

They were Krishna (only name), 63, an agent of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI) and Lakshmi Gounder, 70, a grandmother of seven of Wailevu, Labasa.

BoB Labasa branch manager Uday Singh said the two were honoured with a special token from the bank to show their appreciation.

“In Fiji our first branch was opened in Suva, on July 5, 1961 and in Labasa we opened on March 27, 1971,” Mr Singh said.

Bank of Baroda is an Indian state owned bank Vadodara (earlier known as Baroda) in Gujarat, India.

“The bank was founded by late Maharaja Sayajrao Gaekwad III on July 20, 1908 that is 109 years ago which today we are celebrating our foundation day,” he said.

“We had organised a blood drive together with NCD screening for general public as part of our community service.

“Northern Charity Alliance of Labasa along with Inkk Mobile also joined hands to support this worthy course and all blood donors were provided with free lunch and Inkk Mobile free Sim cards with $100 free talk time.

“We chose to give back something to our community in this way.”